The present invention relates to a method and system for processing calls for a call center, and more particularly to a method and system for collecting caller information.
In a competitive business environment, in addition to providing quality products, businesses must provide good customer service. For many businesses, customer service requests are received via telephone. For these businesses, a special unit of the business, typically referred to as a call center, is often dedicated to servicing these calls. A call center is often a facility that houses numerous customer service representatives or agents who answer and respond to customer service calls.
At a call center, various types of service or requests are handled, some of which require extensive processing by a customer service representative. Despite the unique needs of some callers, certain types of routine information are asked of every caller, such as telephone number, personal identification number, or service desired. To streamline the processing of calls at a call center, routine questions frequently are asked by an automated system, which is generally termed an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Interacting with an IVR system often requires that a caller dial from a touchtone phone. In many instances, the initial prompt from the IVR system is xe2x80x9cWelcome to xe2x80x98Our Companyxe2x80x99, if you are dialing from a touchtone phone, please press #1.xe2x80x9d The next question from an IVR system usually requests the caller to enter some form of identification information. In many cases, the caller""s telephone number serves as the identifier for the caller. Some call centers check the incoming call""s automatic number identification (ANI) field obtained by conventional caller ID equipment to determine who is calling. However, using ANI may not be very effective for many call centers because during normal business hours, many customers call from work and, consequently, the customer would not be properly identified by the ANI. Thus, many call centers prompt the caller to xe2x80x9cPlease key in your telephone number.xe2x80x9d In addition to keying in the telephone number, a caller may be asked to enter the type of service desired so that the call may be routed to the appropriate customer service representative and/or the appropriate information may be retrieved from a database.
Although some call centers implement their own IVR system, coding, integrating, maintaining, supporting, and building the infrastructure for these systems can be burdensome for the call center. Consequently, many businesses delegate the collection of routine caller identification information to a third party or outsourcer. When a third party is used to collect the identification information, the third party receives the initial telephone call, collects the information from the caller and transfers the call and collected data to the call center. Because the call must be transferred to the call center, the call is subject to a xe2x80x9ctake back and transferxe2x80x9d charge from the interexchange carrier whose network the call originated through. Because some call centers receive millions of calls each year, the call center expense due to the transfer charges can be substantial.
Thus, there is a need for an IVR system that minimizes the customization required by business owners to implement an IVR system and there is a need for a system in which xe2x80x9ctake back and transferxe2x80x9d charges of interexchange carriers can be avoided when the IVR task are outsourced to a third party.
Generally described, a system consistent with the present invention processes and collects, at a telephone network central office, information for a call directed to a call center prior to the call being received at the call center.
In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, a call is received for processing at a telephone network central office that is local to the call origination location. At the central office a determination is made as to whether the destination number of the call is identified in a selected database. In response to the call destination number being identified in the selected database, the central office solicits the caller to provide requested information. An indication of the requested information received from the caller is included in a data packet associated with the telephone call before the call is transferred from the central office. The call, including the indication of the requested information, is routed to the call center.
At the central office, it may be determined whether the call originated from a business telephone number or a residential telephone number to facilitate processing of the call. In response to the call originating from a business telephone number, a request may be included for the caller to enter a telephone number for which the caller desires account service from the call center. The requested information may include the type of account service the caller desires from the call center. In another aspect consistent with the present invention, the call received at the central office may include an automatic number identifier that identifies the telephone number from which the call originated, and the automatic number identifier may be replaced, at the central office, by a telephone number input by the caller. A digit of the telephone number contained in the automatic number identification field may be replaced with a number that indicates a type of service the caller desires from the call center. The caller may be requested to enter a geographic area code and before the call is transferred from the central office, a telephone number entered by the caller may be validated with respect to a geographic area entered by the caller. A field of a header of the data packet may be modified to indicate a validation status for the requested geographic area code and the telephone number entered by the caller. The geographic area may be a zip code area. Additionally, a field of the header of the data packet may be used to indicate whether information within the data packet has been modified with requested information received from the caller. A field of a header may also be used to indicate the type of account service indicated by the caller in response to the requested information.